Hey Nid
Let's call it an ideological war with two major power blocs and a handful of independents.
On one hand, we have M2S who want pvp and don't care what we do (trolling, griefing, harassment etc) to get it. The one thing we will refrain from is deliberately trying to outnumber our enemies, because we see ourselves as highly skilled and well organised. While we care about the success of the Perpetuum we aren't going to spend all our time trying to make the server a better place for everyone. Because we're playing a game of survival of the fittest. As an example, this week we have camped F-Navy in their own outpost, causing many of them to post that they are quitting the game. Despite this, we don't see our role as instigators of 'interesting times' as detrimental to the server, whereas we do despise the blob mentality.
On the other hand we have Designated M2S Enemy of the Month. Formerly that was the Norhoop Alliance, who have now been replaced by the Soviet Novastrov alliance, headed by CIR. CIR's stated preference is for skirmishes, not intrusions, and by declaring that they would go to war with any corp that signed up to take their chosen outpost of Darnachov they pretty much guaranteed the course of the current conflict. Because, of course, that's exactly what M2S proceeded to do. CIR then instigated a NAP with the remains of the Norhoop Alliance which allows them to bring considerably more numbers to the field than M2S. They care more about projecting a morally just image than M2S, but are just as heavily into the metagame.
Since both sides consider the other's behaviour 'dishonourable' and not in the best interests of the game, the war is becoming one of survival, and will probably continue for a few weeks more.
I will be very interested to see how it turns out.
In addition to the power blocs we also have a handful of smaller 'pirate' corps such as 62nd, FOOM, nWAR who are not directly involved. In a way it's the smaller corps whose activity I'm most worried about, because their chosen pvp (roaming) isn't very rewarding at the moment, partly due to low game population, and partly due to lack of incentives for players to live on beta islands.
"...playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."
Bernard Suits, 1978